


The Loathsome Library

by InsideMyBrain



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: (for once), Arson, Canon Compliant, Crying, Dubious Physics, F/F, Fire, Fluff, Girls Kissing, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Inventing Saves The Day, Kissing, Libraries, My boi willy shakes, References to Shakespeare, Setting Fire to a Library, Shakespeare Opinions, Sneaking Out, Snicket Definitions (tm), Viodora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-16 14:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12344103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsideMyBrain/pseuds/InsideMyBrain
Summary: Dear Reader,If you are looking for a oneshot about two carefree and giddy young girls who are in love, look elsewhere. Violet Baudelaire and Isadora Quagmire do love each other, but they are certainly not carefree or giddy.In fact, within this transformative work, the children will face unstable bookshelves, arson, a combination lock, homophobia, and the works of William Shakespeare.I have a sworn duty to research and record the lives of these unlucky orphans, but you have no such obligation to read this. You would be better off clicking on some other fanfiction.With all due respect,InsideMyBrain





	The Loathsome Library

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time attempting to write in the snicket style, so i really hope i got it right. feedback is greatly appreciated!

It is one of the sad truths of this world that bigoted people have no problem showing it. And so it was when Carmelita Spats learned Violet and Isadora were in a relationship. She'd always been a bully, but her distaste for the two of them increased, and she began calling them names that were quite demoralizing - a word which here means "damaging to one's sense of self". Violet and Isadora were usually able to shrug off her nasty attitude, but there is something quite frightening about being hated for an integral part of yourself that you cannot change. Soon, the girls found themselves too intimidated to visit the library together - their favourite place - for fear of Carmelita and her friends harassing them.

But young love is one of the best parts of adolescence, probably the only good part, and so Violet and Isadora were determined to hold onto each other.

"We need a place where Carmelita can't find us," Violet sighed, fiddling with her girlfriend's hair. Isadora's head lay in her lap as she sat on one of the bales of hay in the Orphans Shack. They had just escaped the cafeteria, where Carmelita and her friends threw paper airplanes with insults written on them at the two throughout dinner. They were tired of this treatment but knew they couldn't stop it - the cafeteria workers had watched the whole thing, stony-faced, and vice principal Nero would do nothing but mock them. So, they needed an alternate solution.

"She wouldn't dare come here," said Isadora, "though it's not very romantic, is it?"

"No," Violet agreed, petting Isadora absentmindedly.

"We could just go to the game room or living room, although she'd find us quickly," Isadora said glumly.

"I wish we could just go to the library without worrying," said Violet.

"You know, there is the library in town," Isadora suggested.

"The library in town?" Violet asked.

Isadora sat up. "It's bigger than the one here, and Carmelita would never find us. We'd have to sneak out, but it would be worth it."

Violet jumped up. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Unfortunately, the school was like an armoured prison, which are very hard to sneak out of - unless, of course, you have an unusually sturdy spoon. But the children had no spoons at all, because the cafeteria was closed until breakfast. The school property was enclosed by a chain link fence, complete with a surveillance tower from which a security guard watched over the entrance. In addition, the gates were locked with a combination lock, which was very difficult to pick. The girls felt frustrated and helpless as they approached these security measures, especially as it was beginning to get dark.

"How are we going to to do this?" Isadora whispered, feeling whispering was appropriate for the situation.

"I could try to pick the lock," Violet whispered back, "but a bobby pin won't be useful since it's a combination lock. And the security guard would see me, anyway."

Isadora reached into her pocket, searching for anything that could be of use. She found a very small piece of scrap metal, left over from making her noisy shoes, and held it out to Violet. "Would this be of any use?"

Violet took it, turning it over thoughtfully. "It might be, actually," she said. "Do you think you can distract the security guard?"

"Of course," said Isadora.

"I'll whistle if I get it open," Violet told her, "and you whistle if he starts getting suspicious and we need to leave."

"Right," Isadora said, and they parted ways.

Violet reached the gate and held the lock in her hands. It was cold and heavy, and it looked secure. Violet flipped it over and smiled. She pulled her ribbon out of her pocket and tied her hair back. The back panel of the lock was attached with screws, which she began to unscrew with the piece of metal. When the back came off, she saw there were small pieces of metal in a circle, and a dial in the middle. The dial moved as she turned the one on the front of the lock, pushing down the pieces of metal like keys on a piano. She turned the dial to the right, and it pushed down twelve keys before the keys suddenly became stuck. Frowning, Violet turned the dial back to zero and tried again, this time only pushing down eleven keys, then turning the dial to the left. On the other side of the dial, she was able to push down thirty two keys before they got stuck. "So it's just trial and error," she murmured, using a phrase which here means "pushing down as many keys as possible and then losing all her progress, over and over again." In a few more turns of the dial, the lock clicked open, and Violet whistled triumphantly.

If you have ever had the pleasure of viewing the natural phenomenon known as a shooting star, you will know it is quite beautiful and rare, and you will likely feel lucky being able to witness this phenomenon. If you have the nuisance of studying these phenomenon for a living, you will know that 'shooting stars' are in fact comets, and that they are huge flaming balls of rock travelling through space. You will also know that they tend to be destructive and dangerous, as they can crash into planets, and an entire species of dinosaurs could die because of one space rock. Violet knew the latter, but still couldn't help comparing Isadora to a shooting star as she raced towards the gate, all because of the former.

"The guard is very suspicious," Isadora shouted as she drew nearer. "Run!"

Violet took Isadora's hand, and the two dashed out of the gate and down the quiet streets of the small town of Prufrock. They sprinted down alleys and side streets in an attempt to lose the guard, and found themselves on a dimly-lit commercial strip.

"Where is the library?" Violet asked, gasping for breath.

"I believe it's around here," Isadora said, looking around. "Ah! There it is." She pointed down another side street, where the library was nestled between groves of trees. "Let's go."

They crossed the street and went inside. The woman at the checkout desk greeted them as they walked past her. The library was a pleasant place, with comfortable armchairs and high shelves full of books. Violet and Isadora began browsing, whispering happily to each other.

"I've missed this," said Violet, running her eye over the volumes on the shelves.

"So have I," Isadora replied, looking as well. "There's something magical about being in a soft and sleepy library with someone you love."

Violet gave her a kiss in response, smiling. A weight had been lifted off her shoulders, a phrase which here means, "she was quite relieved to be spending time with Isadora far away from Carmelita Spats." They kissed tenderly for a few moments before Isadora pulled away and spotted a book on the shelf over Violet's shoulder.

"Twelfth Night," she said. "She reached around Violet to pull it off the shelf. "I remember reading this in school last year."

"I hate Shakespeare," Violet confessed.

"What?" Isadora looked at her in disbelief. "He's one of the greatest writers in the English language."

"I can't understand him," Violet said, shrugging, "and his characters are annoying. I had to read Romeo and Juliet in school and I hated both of them. They're so stupid!"

"They are, a little bit," Isadora said. "When I read it I got really attached to Mercutio, then cried when I read act three, scene one."

Violet giggled. "I liked him in the film."

"That was a good film," Isadora said. "My only complaint is that they swimming pool scene was rather creepy."

"It was," Violet agreed. "How did she not notice him right behind her?"

"I know, right?" Isadora said. The two laughed softly.

Whether you are young or in late middle age, it is useful for a couple to spend quiet, peaceful moments such as this together, because you never know when fate will decide to separate you, or make one partner perish in a terrible fire. These moments are often fairly personal, and in my experience, usually involve discussing childhood trauma and one's unhealthy coping methods. So, I shall offer Violet and Isadora the courtesy of not documenting the rest of their conversation. I will tell you, though, that they broke away from each other, their lips tinged pink and their cheeks flushed, as the librarian entered their aisle some hours later.

"The library will be closing soon," she informed them. "You must leave in five minutes." The children nodded, and she left.

Violet glanced around and saw that they were the only two people left in the library. "How late is it?" she asked.

Isadora checked her watch. "Five minutes to nine," she said. "How are we going to get back into the school?"

"I could try to pick the lock again," Violet said doubtfully, "but the guard would recognize us and we would get detention for sneaking out. I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Isadora nodded, knowing Violet did not mean a literal bridge, but a figurative one that was, in this case, the entrance to Prufrock Prepatory School. They began to tidy their space, stacking books and placing them on carts for the library staff to reshelve. Once they were finished, they walked hand-in-hand through the library to the front entrance.

At this point, I advise you to, like Violet and Isadora, head towards the nearest exit and not read any further. You should exit this document, exit this application, and exit your current location to go to some large body of water to throw whatever device you are reading this on into. Destroying your cellular device or personal computer is far preferential to reading what comes next in this dreadful tale. You may think Violet and Isadora passed an enjoyable evening, but there is more to come. Knowing how unfortunate their lives are, it is dangerous to slip into a false sense of security, a phrase which here means "believe everything will go well, when in fact there could be a sinister and familiar person lurking just outside the library door."

The children reached the front door, and Violet grasped the handle and pushed. The door didn't move. "It's locked," she said. She looked around to call the librarian, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Isadora pointed back to the door, at a silver lock. It was the kind you had to turn a knob to lock from the inside, and it was clearly unlocked. "It's not locked. Something must be blocking it."

"Is the barricade set up yet?" Someone asked from outside. Violet froze. She recognized that scratchy, wheezy voice immediately, and even though there was a solid wooden door between them, she could already see the owner of the voice's shiny, shiny eyes, gleaming with cruelty and greed.

"Olaf," she whispered.

"Yeah, boss," the hook-handed man said, "what next?"

"Why is he here?" whispered Isadora fearfully.

"Gasoline," Olaf declared, and both the girls' eyes widened in horror.

"Remind me why we're burning this place down again?" the bald man with the long nose asked.

"Arson is like any art: practise makes perfect," Olaf said dramatically. "And besides, those insufferable Volunteers love this place. Burning it down should scare them a little." Violet could hear the lecherous smile in his voice as he said the last sentence.

Violet shuddered, taking a few steps back. "We have to get out of here," she said.

"How?" Isadora asked.

"There has to be another exit," Violet replied. She scanned her surroundings for any doors, stars, or exit signs. "Maybe there's a back exit." She beckoned to Isadora. "Come on."

The children ran in the opposite direction of the entrance and into the labyrinth - a word which here means "maze" - of bookshelves. As she ran, Isadora heard a loud _crash!_ , like the breaking of glass, and looked back towards the sound. "What was that?" she asked.

"Never mind it," Violet huffed. She was several feet in front of Isadora, and all she could think of was escaping.

 _Crash!_ The sound came a second time, and this time Isadora saw a window had been broken, and something was being thrown inside.

"Violet, they've thrown something in," Isadora called. "It looks like a glass bottle!"

The bottle landed just behind the two children, and burst into flames. The flames engulfed the carpet and crawled quickly up the bookshelves. Isadora screamed and ran faster. They heard more _crash!_ sounds, and the crackling sound of fire as more Molotov cocktails were thrown inside. As they approached the back of the library, they saw there was no back door. They stopped, panting.

"What now?" Isadora cried. "Go back?"

The girls turned around and looked back at the shelves. Several aisles were in flames, and a cloud of black smoke hung over the area like a thick blanket.

"I guess we'll have to," Violet said, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice.

Fear is a curious thing, because it compels you to do things you would never have considered otherwise. Neither Violet nor Isadora had ever considered dashing through a maze of flaming bookshelves, but the fear of dying in a fire compelled them to do it. I myself was compelled to jump off a moving train into a frozen lake, all because of the fear of having my picture taken. Fear also gives you the energy to do these things, in the form of adrenaline, so Violet and Isadora ran faster than they thought was possible. Their footsteps pounded on the carpet, and hot, smoky air whipped through their hair. The two were so focused on escaping the library, they didn't noticed the shelves wobbling around them. The fire that was sweeping through the aisles had weakened the wood, and a slight knock sent one crashing down. They dodged to avoid it, Violet stepping to the left and Isadora to the right. The shelf fell onto its side between them, creating a wall of fire the height of Violet's chest.

"Violet!" Isadora screamed. She was trapped between three bookshelves and one flaming pile of books.

"Isadora!" Tears sprang to Violet's eyes as she saw her girlfriend trapped.

"Violet, help!" Isadora's voice was raw from all the smoke, and she began coughing.

"Hold on," Violet yelled, pulling her ribbon out of her pocket. "I'll get you out!" She quickly tied her hair up, and glanced around desperately for anything she could use to free Isadora. All she saw was shelves, fire, and smoke. She closed her eyes and imagined the library as it was earlier in the evening. What was in this library that she could use?

"A pulley," she said suddenly. She looked at the nearest bookshelf. It was still intact, and Violet thought if she could get on top of it, she could reach the ceiling. "Isadora!" she called, "don't panic! I'll get you out, I promise!"

"I trust you," Isadora called back.

Violet dashed away to get the supplies she needed, coughing from the smoke. As she ran through the aisles, she spotted the cart she and Isadora had placed their books on not too long ago. Dropping to the floor, she pulled the piece of scrap metal out of her pocket and began to unscrew one of the wheels. Once it came off, she slipped the wheel in her pocket and kept running.

When she emerged from the bookshelves, she headed straight for the front desk. On the desk sat a computer, and Violet knew that if there was a computer, there must also be wires. The fire hadn't spread there yet, so it was perfectly safe for her to run behind the desk, pull a pair of scissors out of a drawer, and cut one of the many wires that protruded from the back of the computer. She cut a few more wires and cords, and tied them all together with the Devil's Tongue to make a perfunctory - the word "perfunctory" here means "hurriedly made" - rope. As she put the scissors back in the drawer, she saw two things that would be useful. One was a tube of extra-powerful glue, used for replacing spines and covers of books that had fallen apart. The other was a paperweight, a cube of heavy metal with a handle protruding from it. She slipped both things into her pockets, and ran back towards the bookshelves.

"Isadora!" Violet said, once she'd reached the spot where Isadora was trapped. Luckily, the fire hadn't destroyed the surrounding area yet, or the bookshelf she needed to climb onto. "Are you O.K.?"

"Yes," Isadora replied, "for now." Her voice was hoarse. "Please hurry."

"I will," Violet said. On the ground was a pile of charred wood, the remains of a bookshelf. She very carefully sifted through it until she found four nails, and put those in her pocket as well. Finally finished gathering all her materials, she climbed on top of the bookshelf.

"I'm going to make a pulley," Violet told Isadora, taking the wheel out of her pocket, "so I can lift you over the shelf."

Isadora nodded. "Alright."

The wheel Violet was holding was the sort where half was encased in metal and attached to another, flat piece of metal. The space between the wheel and the casing was just big enough for the wire, so she threaded the wire through. She pulled the glue out of her pocket and spread a layer on the piece of metal on top of the wheel, and stuck it to the ceiling. To make sure it would stay, Violet stuck the nails through the holes where the screws had been, and used the paperweight to nail the whole thing to the ceiling. She pulled on the wire tentatively, testing how secure the invention was.

"Will that hold me without breaking?" Isadora asked worriedly.

"It'll have to," Violet said. She threw one end of the wire down to Isadora while wrapping the other end tightly around her hand. "Can you tie it around you?" she asked. "Under your arms?"

Isadora tried. "I think so." She knotted it as tight as she could.

"It'll be uncomfortable," Violet warned. "Hold on tight." She began pulling on the wire.

At first, it seemed as if Violet wouldn't be able to lift her. But she gritted her teeth and pulled again, and Isadora lifted up off the ground. Violet planted her feet on the bookshelf and pulled with all her strength, and slowly but surely, Isadora rose above the wall of flame. Once she was high enough, Isadora stepped onto the shelf, and she and Violet embraced.

"Thank goodness," Violet murmured, placing a kiss on the corner of Isadora's mouth. Isadora was trembling in her arms. She untied the wire from around her.

"We have to leave," Isadora said, "but there's a problem."

At some point in your life, you probably have heard of the game "The Floor Is Lava". As I'm sure you know, the game involves climbing on top of furniture to avoid falling into the lava that the floor has become. Of course, in the game the lava is simply in your imagination, and you cannot burn to death if you touch the floor. However, for Violet and Isadora, the fire that had consumed every square centimetre of the carpet was not their imagination. They would have to jump from one bookshelf to another, and this was a very dangerous game indeed.

"We'll have to jump from one bookshelf to another," Violet said. Her eyes followed a path of still-intact bookshelves up to the wall, where there was a broken window. "We can escape out that window," she said, pointing to it.

"I'm scared," Isadora said quietly.

"Me too," Violet admitted. "But it's our only hope."

Isadora gulped and stiffened her resolve, a phrase which here means, "committed herself to doing such a dangerous thing", then jumped onto the next bookshelf. It wobbled violently, but didn't tip over. She looked back at Violet.

"Go on ahead," she told Isadora. "I think it'll be safer if only one of is on one bookshelf at a time."

Isadora nodded, and leaped onto the next one, landing gracefully. Violet jumped onto the one she'd just left, and Isadora jumped onto the one ahead of her. They continued in this way until they reached the shelf nearest the wall. This shelf was bolted to the wall, so they decided it was safe for two people to stand on it. In their wake, they'd left a trail of half tipped over shelves.

Violet and Isadora stood together on the last shelf and peered out the window. It was a rather high drop, but beneath them was grass and some shrubs to break their fall. Violet took the paperweight and smashed any glass remaining on the window, so they wouldn't get cut as they jumped. Isadora went first, hanging off the edge of the windowsill so as to make it as low of a drop as possible. She let herself fall, and landed on a bush that was quite scratchy but at least did not break any of her bones. Violet let herself fall next, landing beside Isadora. The scrambled out of the way of the burning building, and collapsed under a tree some distance away.

If you have ever experienced any sort of traumatic event - and I sincerely hope you have not - then you will know that shock can keep you calm and rational during the event, and once it wears off, you will begin to panic. This is exactly what happened to Violet and Isadora. As soon as they realized they were out of harm's way, they burst into tears as their stress and high emotions caught up to them. They wept and hugged each other, whispering things like "we're safe," and "oh my gosh," and planting kisses on each other's faces. They continued to weep and whisper as the library burned behind them, destroying a safe place, and as the sun rose, destroying a terrible night.

As the first rays of morning sun shone on Violet's tear-stained face, she sat up and stretched. Her entire body ached, and she could feel a headache coming on. Isadora had drifted into a light sleep beside her, and she gently shook her awake. The girls sat together as the sun rose, looking at the blackened, charred remains of the library. Although the sight of a burned building is one of the most terrible sights in the world, they found they had no more tears to weep, and so they simply looked at it and felt an immense sadness take over them. 

"Let's get out of this loathsome place," Violet finally said. She got to her feet, and helped Isadora up. As they walked, they thought of the how they escaped, and how resourceful and brave they had been, and in spite of their exhaustion and sadness, they felt a little proud of having survived the fire. Violet thought of her invention, and how it had saved her girlfriend's life, and felt a twinge of pride. Isadora thought of jumping from shelf to shelf, and how scared she'd been but she'd gone through with it anyway, and felt a twinge of pride. The children thought of Olaf, and all his treachery he'd done in the past, and all the treachery he was likely to do in the future. They thought if they could survive this, they could survive anything else he might be planning. 


End file.
